Towards equitable evaluation through the use of the African Evaluation Principles

African Evaluation Journal

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Towards equitable evaluation through the use of the African Evaluation Principles
 
Creator Sibanda, Adeline Sibanda, Tanaka D. Sibanda, Tariro N.
 
Subject Evaluation African Evaluation Principles; decolonisation; equitable evaluation; Ubuntu; power asymmetry; inequalities.
Description Background: Evaluation has often been associated with Northern paradigms in its formulation and practice. It is extractive in nature and often a top-down approach that implies that those who receive aid or interventions have no voice and no rights. The African Evaluation Principles (AEPs) are aimed at addressing power asymmetries that exist within the evaluation ecosystem in Africa while giving agency, voice and power to Africans.Objectives: The article explores the role that colonisation has played and continues to influence how development is carried out and therefore, how and when evaluations are carried out and who performs the evaluation. Specifically, it explores the AEPs and how they could be used to contribute to addressing inequalities and power asymmetries.Methods: The article reviews secondary data and uses one’s own experiences on the continent and observation.Results: The article discusses how the AEPs could contribute to making the concept of equitable evaluation more relevant and applicable in the practice of evaluations in Africa. The article highlights the role of African indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing, values and traditions to inform what equitable evaluation could look like from an African perspective.Conclusion: The article concludes that there is much work and commitment needed to ensure the use of the AEPs to contribute towards the practice of true equitable evaluation where this is genuinely practiced with the aim of addressing power asymmetries and inequalities. This requires a change of mindsets, challenging one’s own biases as well as the power imbalances.Contribution: This article contributes to better understanding of AEPs and how they could be used to achieve equitable evaluation.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2023-11-08
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Literature review, observation
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/aej.v11i1.697
 
Source African Evaluation Journal; Vol 11, No 1 (2023); 11 pages 2306-5133 2310-4988
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/697/1257 https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/697/1258 https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/697/1259 https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/697/1260
 
Coverage Africa Colonial; Post-colonial; Decoloniality Indigenous, local communities
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Adeline Sibanda, Tanaka D. Sibanda, Tariro N. Sibanda https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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